The Competition and Fair Trade Commission (CFTC) has said that the telecommunications and banking sectors registered the highest number of complaints.

According to an update on the performance of the commission in the 2019/20 financial year, CFTC said it resolved 146 consumer complaints, recovering over K5.11 million in refunds to consumers and penalties in the process.

Speaking to The Nation newspaper, CFTC public relations officer Innocent Helema said the complaints largely centred on situations where traders acted unreasonably. “We had cases, for instance, where some banks overcharged consumers and some telecoms companies denied refunding their customers money where there were some miscalculations.” he said.

Similarly in 2019, a report from the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) showed that most of the complaints that are addressed to the central Bank, were from the sectors. The report showed that complaints submitted are about financial abuse, inadequate disclosure, lack of awareness, over-debtedness and financial fraud, while poor customer service complaints remain an increasing concern. The report specified that the reports are mostly from microfinance institutions, insurance sectors and the banking sector. In 2018 microfinance institutions registered 97 complaints, insurance firms 91 and bank sector registered 59. In 2017, a total of 133 complaints were addressing poor customer care.